B&W captures (RAW) open in color in Lightroom 4?

[geoffpowers]

I shot a portrait using the B&W preset on my 5D III in RAW. When I downloaded them into Lightroom 4, they all opened in color. Why?

Should I not have shot in RAW? Or does that not make a difference? In the meantime, I'll see if I can find the answer in the manual,

which I haven't been able to so far.

[joseph_dickerson]

<p>I believe that setting B&W as a "picture style" only affects the jpeg files, RAW will still retain all the data. Your camera will display them as B&W as the preview images are jpegs.<br>

I think I got that right, if not, I'm sure we'll hear about it soon enough.<br>

JD</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>The B&W setting of your camera applies to how it will process the captured data to a JPEG file. The raw data is unaltered, so it will be in colour (there is a preview inside the rawfile, that will show B&W as it's a small processed jpeg file - but Lightroom ignores that). Possibly the Canon software may recognise your camera settings better, and render the raw file in the same way the camera would have (I cannot verify since I do not use Canon).<br>

Probably, the best solution here would have been shooting RAW+JPEG - a JPEG to have your B&W file right away, and the raw file to keep all data and have the freedom afterwards to do convert to B&W using better tools.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

Ditto, but I'm kind of surprised that lr4 didn't 'see' the seeing, and display appropriately. I'm sure that DPP would display it correctly. The good news

is that you can always change to b&W in LR . And you still have color data if you want to apply color filters to improve the images. The last time I

used a B&W style, it was on my XTi , and that camera recorded the images with b&W color depth.

[Spearhead]

<p>Picture styles don't affect the RAW image. If you use Canon's software (DPP,) you can open it with the picture style. However, DPP also allows you to apply the same picture style to a RAW photo, so there isn't much point to using picture styles if you are shooting in RAW. The only reason to use picture styles is if you are going to use a JPEG from the camera.</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>Actually using the B&W pic style is helpful as you can see the approximate results on the camera LCD and adjust composition accordingly. However, as others have said, aftermarket RAW converters can't read Canon's Pic style tag. You'll have to open it in DPP if you want it to display the pic style as default.</p>

<p>I prefer to use the Topaz B&W plug-in and hand blend selected conversions according to my taste: <br>

<img src="http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/downtown_images/Hawaii_theatre_0091sign.jpg" alt="" /> </p>

[geoffpowers]

<p>So it was as I suspected: using "picture styles" is RAW doesn't yield the style's enhancement(s)...only jpegs do. I like the idea of shooting RAW + jpeg. Best of both worlds. I feel rather foolish that I didn't connect the dots earlier. Thanks to all for your responses.</p>

[JeffOwen]

<p>As you probably realised there are only coloured sensors in (most) digital cameras. Basically full spectrum light sensors with three types of coloured filters in front.</p>